Dancing Geek

I’ve always liked comics, they’re incredibly accessible mini pieces of art.  It’s art + story in explicit form, and the way that they work is a fascinating subject that Scott McCloud argues is not just words plus pictures in his book ‘Understanding Comics‘.

Combining this enjoyment with the internet then is a win-win for me, and I have more than a few webcomics in my feed reader.  But it’s not just their entertainment value that I enjoy, it’s also what they represent as a successful example of adapting to the internet as a new medium.

Some webcomic artists are people that like simply to draw for fun in their spare time, some more regularly posting that others, some higher quality finish than others, but all enjoyable as examples of a passion shared.  When the subject material itself is also a passion, as in Rich Morris’ series ‘The 10 Doctors‘, the community that builds up around it provides as much, if not more, of the enjoyment than the comic itself – which personally I’m loving to pieces.

Community however, is not limited to fanfic.  Many artists who create unique material will also have a forum such as XKCD and Questionable Content.  These provide valuable feedback for the artist, a place for informal artwork and out-of-story imagery, as well as providing a way for people to connect with each other and create a Godin-tribe.

It is this tribe that then supports the successful artists, and enables webcomics to provide income to artists without resorting to the alienating practices of selling advertising space or indeed charging for their work.  This is where the real demonstration of a working internet model occurs.  The creator provides regular, quality content and in return fans not only will pay money, but demand to be able to do so.

Requests for merchandise often come from the fans who want a t-shirt or poster with a particular piece of artwork on it (yes, artwork).  The creation of a tribe means that clothing that will allow others in the tribe to recognise each other offline is desirable to promote the exclusivity and branding of the tribe we know so well in mainstream fashion today.

As well as the demand for memorabilia is the demand for experiences, comic conventions are an obvious place for webcomic artists.  Fans want to meet the artist, ask them questions, get a signed book of their work, and simply meet other fans.  Providing an offline, real world version of the online forum allows the best of both worlds.  The ongoing benefits of internet connectivity and presence, with the enjoyment of realtime, in-person interaction to solidify and augment relationships.

All of the money given by fans is for extra services that revolve around the main product, all is considered of value and yet none of it could happen with the sense of community that is built around a free product online.  It is this that excites me – the creative material is shared with anyone and everyone around the world, and supported by those who wish to be part of the community or tribe.  Others are free to access the product, but not the sense of connection that has grown around it.

Both the creative product and the community are valuable in their own right, but by allowing the community to support the work, everyone can benefit from the creative product without restriction (except obviously internet access, which by no means is a given yet).  This free sharing of creative output is something I am very interested in, and having even just one example of it to learn from gives me hope that we may find more open ways of interacting in the future.

If you’re interested, here’s a list of my current webcomic reads (warning – possible NSFW content for some of these):

• The 10 Doctors (finished)
• XKCD
• Questionable Content
• Looking for Group
• Least I Could Do
• Calamities of Nature
• JEFBOT
• Tasty Flesh
• Geek Loves Nerd
• AppleGeeks
• Able and Baker
• The Joy of Tech
• Penny Arcade
• Sinfest
• Girls with Slingshots
• Ctrl+Alt+Del
• Two Lumps

And thanks to the way webcomics link to each other, this list is sure to grow.

Sat 7 November 2009 saw Saddlergate, Derby host a Music & Arts Festival across 3 of its buildings: The Old Bell Inn, The Big Blue cafe, and Boo! sustainable and fair trade shop.

The different venues provided a venue for bands and booze, art, music and coffee, or snacks and relaxing respectively.  Chaos found a home in the latter two locations.

We got to chat with some really nice people at Boo!, try some yummy tea and cakes, and generally relax on big cushions under hanging origami and drapes, whilst listening to some lyrical guitar followed by a violin and digeridoo duet (my personal favourite).  They also have a rather interesting little library of books you can read or borrow which I may well be venturing back to have a look at, if I can face being in Derby city centre.

Big Blue had some great art on the walls, including origami on canvas, painted canvases and cut-out art that made me think of very artistic theatre props.  It was upstairs in the cafe that Chaos actually got to do some dancing.

The space itself was “compact” with sofas round the edges, and the musicians in one corner, so there wasn’t a great deal of room for us – especially after everyone wanting to listen had crammed in.  So we ended up doing duets to allow us to actually move and stretch out our limbs at least a little bit.

The music (performed by Leela and the Spaceship – a possible Futurama reference?) was fantastic to dance to, it was a really enjoyable experience being so close to the audience and musicians, even if it did result in a few bums in faces and not so graceful attempts to avoid mass collision.  I was never sure whether the applause was for us or the musicians, but all in all we seemed well received by everyone in the room – certainly only nice things were said to us afterwards.

We did try again later to perform, but the music was evidently too catchy, or my little solo too enticing, that within a few minutes the floor was full of everyone dancing so we again had a little duet but mostly just enjoyed dancing with everyone to ‘Look Pancake?’.

Given we knew nothing about the space, the music, the audience, the duration or indeed anything really about what we were going to be doing, it was such fun to just turn up and move together in such an accepting environment.  It’s fair to say that not everything worked – the lack of space was a massive restriction, but hopefully our creativity was a match for it most of the time.  Certainly there were lessons I took away about adapting to different spaces.

I wish I had someone to link to about the event, but we were having such fun I didn’t think to find this out at the time.  Still, perhaps there will be more opportunities in the future – I would certainly welcome them!

An entertaining piece that occasionally feels self-indulgent, Sense of Self was definitely worth going to see.

This piece was at times strikingly beautiful, the wonderful movement of the dancers playing only one part in this.  The imaginative use of light and dark, the luxurious animal skin rug, and the wonderfully complementary soundtrack, which never demanded your attention be drawn from the performers, but merged into a whole with the rest of the piece, all added their own layer of aesthetic enjoyment.

When the two performers danced together, you could see how well they knew and trusted each other, a complete union of movement that was delightful to watch.  The fluidity of their movement together was such that the two seemingly switched places without me noticing on a number of occasions- an interesting effect in the context of a piece discussing identity.

There were times however, during the non-contact duet, the latter section with the dress and when working with the balloons, when their previously excellent discernment in both content and duration no longer applied.

The non-contact duet looked like an exercise in changing levels, whilst the dancers grew intentionally and progressively more tired.  This length of this section felt excessive to address issues around wanting to be the same and yet different, or to highlight the amount of energy we put into maintaining such a state.  Not that these are not important areas to explore, but the more literal interpretation leaves less room for open-ended exploration and as such was not as rewarding to watch for such a length of time.

The latter section with the dress I found merely confusing.  Again, it felt like a more literal interpretation of sexuality and objectification, lacking the space to encourage thoughts to run it simply brought me back to this rather solid point, a cycle which quickly grew old.

I will openly acknowledge that the lack may lie with myself.  Such literal interpretations may expose only my own creative short-comings, however so much of the rest of the piece had obvious roots (clothing, evolution, social labelling, etc.) and yet still allowed a deeper, richer exploration of the subject for me whilst also remaining entertaining.  That so much of the piece achieved this so well makes these other areas seem unfinished, which is a shame, though I am pleased to note that it did not ruin the overall quality of the piece.

The third section I noted for criticism was the closing section.  The sense of climax and resolution was nicely achieved, in that it was very successful.  However the text again felt as though it was not yet ready, and the balloons seemed excessive and indulgent in a piece that had otherwise achieved so much with elegant minimalism.

As a spectacle, the text was enjoyable, in keeping with the rest of the piece, and had the potential to be very striking.  I think it could have been improved however by either reducing the amount of text and allowing more time for it to be digested or increasing the amount and leading the audience on a particular journey with it, the unfolding of a pathway through their ideas and exploration of identity.  As it was, I felt the volume was dictated by the book used, set at an arbitrary amount, and the choices made therefore equally arbitrary and unguided.  The sense of being guided through a journey of words had such potential here, I really liked the format they used, I just wish it had been more carefully crafted.

The balloons however I remain solidly against.  Other than adding an interesting framing and texture to the piece through their presence on stage throughout, they seem to me completely unnecessary.  The small gesture with the hat was enough to convey the issue of identity in celebration as a topic, and further exploration rather than self-indulgent whimsy would have been preferred.

My choice to pick apart what I see as the flaws of this piece should not indicate any displeasure but rather my enjoyment at working on the presentation of such ideas, whether they be my own or someone else’s work.  This was truly an enjoyable hour of performance that I would recommend to others.  Those moments that did shine were bright enough to more than accomodate a few darker spots.

Using a dyno-torch gave such an ethereal quality of lighting that I simply ceased to look for any interpretation and allowed my senses to be thrilled with the visual display being provided, a feast for the eyes and the soul.  The harsh contrast of flickering flourescent tubes that followed were an excellent way to support their exploration of identity through the lighting, as well as forcing a reaction from myself as a viewer.

The interconnectedness of their duets were so complex, and so smooth, as to elicit the bittersweet pang of jealousy and joy that I feel whenever seeing dance so skillfully executed as to leave me uncertain that I could ever match such grace.

The piece was skillfully crafted as a whole, the injection of humour or unison movement as a moment of respite and relief for the viewer were welcome.  Not too much or too little, it serves as an example of the fine choices made in assembling this performance.

(A performance by Melanie Demers and Laila Diallo – 5 November 2009, Deda, Derby.)